Controversial measure is in hands of judge with Valley ties

The ruling Robert Simpson makes would stand if Supreme Court deadlocks.

Judge Robert 'Robin' Simpson of Nazareth is being asked to decide… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )

July 28, 2012|By Peter Hall and Scott Kraus, Of The Morning Call

Pennsylvania's new voter identification law has sparked controversy, protests and a legal challenge.

Now the law's fate falls to Commonwealth Court Judge Robert "Robin" Simpson of Nazareth.

Some say the decision is in the right hands because Simpson, a Republican who served for 12 years in Northampton County Court, isn't known to sway with the political winds.

And at age 60, with a new 10-year term ahead of him, Simpson won't have to face voters again before he reaches mandatory retirement at age 70.

The voter identification challenge landed in Simpson's courtroom Wednesday and will continue this week. He will decide by mid-August whether state officials can enforce the law in the November presidential election.

After that, the law will almost certainly be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

But an unusual situation in the Supreme Court may make Simpson's decision stick. With Justice Joan Orie Melvin suspended to face criminal charges she misused state resources in her campaign, the court has an even — and potentially deadlocking — number.

Adding to the intrigue, the remaining six justices are divided equally between Democrats and Republicans.

Although court watchers say it's unlikely the justices would vote 3-3 along party lines, such a result would make Simpson's decision the final word on whether the voter ID law is constitutional.

"He's got to be real careful, and I don't see any reason to believe he won't," said Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, vice president and policy director for the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based group that advocates for clean and fair elections. "There are certain judges who have a reputation for not being fair, and he is not one of them."

The American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups went to court in May on behalf of 10 plaintiffs, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the state from implementing the voter ID law's requirements in the November election.

The ACLU and its allies say the law will prevent legally registered voters who are unable to obtain one of the accepted forms of identification from casting ballots. It's a burden, they argue, that falls disproportionately on groups like the elderly, low-income and minorities, and it violates the state Constitution.

The state argues that the Legislature is entitled to enact laws that govern the way elections are conducted and that election officials have worked to make sure every eligible voter who wants an ID can obtain one. That includes creating a new ID for registered voters who don't have a driver's license or can't collect the documents needed to obtain a non-driver ID issued by the state Department of Transportation.

Simpson has a reputation as a fair and impartial jurist with an ability to decide cases without regard to politics, say those who have worked closely with him, appeared before him in court and pay attention to his decisions.

"He is not a judge who is outcome-driven. He carefully considers the law and the facts put before him by both parties," said Steven Hoffman, an Allentown attorney who served as Simpson's law clerk in the early 1990s.

"With him you can be confident that the decision is going to be based on his view of the law and not the motivation of any outside sources," Hoffman said.

Longtime Easton attorney Gary Asteak, a Democrat who tried many cases before Simpson, said he was relieved to know Simpson would be deciding the Voter ID case.

"I was worried as a Pennsylvanian that we would be embarrassed by the decision that we made with regard to this issue," Asteak said. "I feel much more comfortable now that I know Judge Simpson will be ruling on this."

Simpson, who ran as a Republican when he was elected to Commonwealth Court in 2001, has ruled against his own party in election law cases in the past.

In 2008, with the presidential election less than a week away, he rejected a request from the Pennsylvania Republican Party to force the community group known as ACORN to turn over the names of 140,000 voters it had registered.

Simpson ruled that GOP leaders were unable to prove their allegations that ACORN was engaged in election fraud and that state and county election officials would be unable to catch fraudulent registrations.

Attorney Brian Monahan, who represented the Northampton County Republican Committee, said Simpson ruled against him in a case challenging the validity of signatures on an Upper Mount Bethel Township supervisor candidate's nominating petition.

"He's not a political animal in any sense," Monahan said.

Simpson was nominated by Democratic Gov. Bob Casey to fill a vacancy in Northampton County Court in May 1989 and then was elected to a 10-year term later that year.

Although Simpson was a Democrat, he cross-filed to appear on the ballots in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. He lost the Democratic primary but won as a Republican and went on to win in the 1989 general election.